Daddy Knows Best
by La Vita a Colori
Summary: Sasuke and Naruto get into a fight over whose dad is better. Minato consoles. Fluffy one-shot, family themes, dash of SASUNARU


**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. I just play.

**Author's Note:** Short fluffy one-shot that is so fluffy that it snuggles itself. :U Anyway, this is for my darling Shizu-chan who so kindly ordered me to write her a fluffy family ficlet, and I just had to add a dash of SasuNaru in there. ;)

**Okay, so just to make things ABSOLUTELY CLEAR, since some of you were obviously disappointed with how this turned out and I'm sorry to disappoint but we cant please everyone (especially since I wrote it according to one person's taste), but this is in NO WAY a MinaNaru thing. At all. I will never do it. I do apologize if I lead you on with the innuendos, but it was meant to be more in a humorous sense than sexual. I'm sorry it got so mixed up for you. Then again, in the description I did say "family themes" not "incestuous themes" as well as putting "a dash of SasuNaru". I will change the description since you we're misled. **

ENJOY!

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**DADDY KNOWS BEST**

Minato heard the tell-tale slam of wood on wood as he tapered over towards the hallway door, reaching out a foot to nudge it open as he continued mussing up his hair with a damp towel. The pitter patter or small feet ricocheted throughout the entire house and the blond felt his lip twitch up, being able to envision his small son racing around to find him as was their custom after Naruto came home from school.

Something heavy was dropped onto tile as Minato proceeded towards the door leading to their kitchen, mentally reminding himself to tell Naruto to be gentler on the flooring. Just as he reached a hand towards the knob, the amber wooden door was flung open to reveal a tight-lipped young boy, no older than six, who instantly locked piercing, teary blue eyes with his father's own.

Instantly, the older crouched down at the knees, rocking slowly back and forth on his heels, and stretched his arms out to pull the small boy into his grasp.

"Hey there, little man! How was school?" He asked as he rocked Naruto back and forth, smiling lopsidedly as Naruto's little arms wrapped around him as well.

The older blond raised a questioning eyebrow, however, when Naruto froze up and pulled his father's arms off of him before reaching forward, grasping two cloth-covered knees and pushing Minato's legs apart as far as they would go.

Flinging his arms back to steady himself, Minato frowned. "Oi, oi! Careful, Naruto. You could have pushed me over and—"

"Are you?"

"Huh?"

"Are… are you a, um…" Naruto trailed off as he focused his gaze on Minato's crotch and stared, concentrating profusely on the image there, as if attempting to see through the thin cotton pants.

Minato quirked his eyebrow and regained his footing to take hold of Naruto's hands, wrapping his fingers around much smaller ones which squeezed reflexively in his grasp. "What's wrong?"

Blue eyes wandered back and forth for a moment before the blond seemed to come to some sort of internal resolution and, meeting his father's eyes with watery determination shining, said with difficulty, "Are you a man who is unable to properly fulfill his societal role as breadwinner?"

It was said so quickly and all in one breath and Minato had the fleeting thought that he needed to clean his ears out because obviously he had missed something there.

Thus, he so eloquently responded, "Huh?"

The small boy pulled away from his father and fisted small hands in the front of his black shirt, the small orange swirl staring up at him as he chewed thoughtfully at his bottom lip.

"Because… because he said—"

"Who said?"

"Sasuke said that he had the best daddy and so I told him no way, 'cause my daddy is the best daddy. And then _he_ said that, nuh uh, no way. And I was like, why? And then he said that it's 'cause you're a 'man who is unable to pros… propt… pot—"

"—properly—"

"Yeah, 'properly, fulfill his role as bead… breat… um, bread—"

"—breadwinner—"

"Yeah, that one."

At this point he snapped his gaze up to his father, who motioned for him to continue.

"Well, I asked Sasuke what he means and _he_ said that his daddy said that it means a 'girly man', and so I wanted to know if it was true."

Minato was, obviously, confused.

"Wait, if what is true?"

"If you're a girly man!" He threw his little arms out to the side in exasperation, a small pink pout adorning his lips and Minato chuckled lightly.

"And you got worried about this?" He received a nod in reply. "Well, how about this. Do I seem like less of a man to you?"

Naruto's head shot up. "No way! You're the manliest man."

Minato felt his lip twitch upwards at that and continued. "So, then why are you so worried about it?" He reached a tan hand forward to ruffle blond spikes.

"S'cause _Sasuke_ said—"

"Oh, Sasuke said something else, now did he?"

"Yeah, he said that his dad said you weren't a man 'cause you don't go to work wearing a tie and carrying a brie.. brief—"

"—briefcase—"

"—yeah."

Minato sighed a little, cocking his head to the side as he surveyed the small boy. Naruto was staring intensely at the ground in front of his feet, eyes filled with frustrated tears threatening to spill over and hands worrying frantically at the edge of his shirt.

He tilted his head the other way and reached out a large hand to lift Naruto's head up by the chin, his grip light between forefinger and thumb. "Naruto," he began, the serious tone matching hard eyes. "I can assure you that I am _all_ man."

Naruto's lower lip twitched momentarily and he averted his eyes sideways slightly, pride still wounded. Minato understood it was probably difficult for a little boy to have his parent ridiculed by another classmate's teasing, even a close friend to Naruto like Sasuke was. He internally scoffed at what Fugaku was feeding his sons, but pushed that thought aside in favor of cupping whiskered cheeks with both hands and forcing Naruto to meet his eyes.

"Listen to me really carefully, okay?"

A nod.

"Just because I don't wear a suit and tie does not make me less of a man. Not carrying a briefcase off to some office job does not make me less of a man. Even though your mama goes off to work every day and I work at home does **not** make me less of a man. I may not be our primary source of income, but running a happy home takes more than money. Do you understand, Naruto?"

The boy's lip trembled, but he held Minato's gaze steadily before nodding again.

His father smiled down at him and nodded back, mumbling, "Good." It was only when he released the boy did he notice the dark smudges on his soft forearms and hands.

Taking one of the pudgy hands in his again, he examined what appeared to be dirt stains and questioned softly, "So, what are these then? Did you get in a fight?"

Naruto tsked lightly and turned his head to the side, pulling his arm away and crossing them over his chest. "I sure did! When Sasuke told me that his dad was better, I socked him right in the face." He turned a sly eye back to Minato, proud of his handiwork, but was met with disappointment.

"Naruto, you know you aren't supposed to be fighting in school."

A scowl.

"Well, I wasn't just going to let him talk about you like that."

"It still was wrong to hit him."

"He punched me back!"

"That doesn't give you the right—"

"He called you girly!"

"I'm not girly, damnit!"

It was at this moment the doorbell rang and both blonds paused in their fuming to turn towards the front entrance before Minato shook his head slightly and got up. Softly padding over to the door, he opened it, eyes widening slightly when he came face to face with his son's best friend-turned-arch nemesis.

The blond cocked an eyebrow slightly meeting the little Uchiha's terse gaze, black eyes boring into his own and a hard line where a mouth should be.

Minato felt a tug on his leg and looked down to see Naruto gripping his father's pants tightly, face set in a grimace as he stared out at the other boy, protectively barricading his father from how evil Sasuke apparently was.

"What do you want?" Naruto blurted out and Minato nudged his back into silence.

Turning to the pale boy on his doorstep, he said, "Hi, Sasuke. Would you like to come inside?"

Black, narrow eyes momentarily slipped to meet Naruto's baby blues, but he quickly looked back up at Minato and nodded in affirmation. "I want to speak to Naruto alone."

The older man huffed lightly at Sasuke's directness and let the boy inside, watching as the Uchiha shuffled a large container behind his back while he and Naruto sized each other up. Minato looked between the two for a moment, until Sasuke met his eyes and his mouth, if possible, became tighter and more disgruntled.

Minato only rolled his eyes and held up his hands in surrender, muttering, "All right, all right. The 'girly man' will leave."

It was with minute enjoyment that he spotted the soft blush flutter through Sasuke's cheeks at his comment and the older blond left through the hall door, only to turn right back around and peek through the crack onto their conversation. Just to make sure they didn't break out into a fistfight, of course.

He watched for a moment as the two merely stood surveying each other and then Naruto crossed his arms, scowl still set in place.

Sasuke matched his look and bit out, "You _told_ him? Why would you do—"

"Cause he's my daddy and I can tell him what I want."

Sasuke opened his mouth to instantly retort, but froze and, shaking his anger out, closed his mouth tightly before shuffling the container around to his front. He looked pensive for a time, staring at the pot's silver lid before shoving it into Naruto's arms, which automatically came up to cradle the heavy container.

"For you."

The blond's angry expression vanished quickly, to say the least. "Huh? What is it, Sasuke?"

"Ramen."

And for a moment, everything was evenly, blissfully silent.

"Ramen?"

"Yes, moron. Ramen."

"…For me?"

"_Yes_."

Naruto stared at the lid for a moment, all thoughts of little bloody knuckles and curses that little boys and little girls aren't supposed to say yet fleeing his mind as he pondered this random gift.

"But… why?"

At that, Sasuke let out a light sigh and shoved his hands deep in his pockets.

"Because I'm…" He paused momentarily, almost appearing like he was at a loss for words or mentally rehearsing his lines and looked to some obscure corner of the room. "I'm, well… sor—sorry."

"Naruto's eyes widened slightly and he watched as a small blush began a nice trail from one cheek and over Sasuke's petite nose to the other, the raven-haired boy appearing so skittish that Naruto wondered if it hurt from being so tense.

"That… that's okay." He responded meekly, now unable to look at Sasuke's face and both boys focused on anything but each other, two arrogant little souls trying to make peace without really knowing how. Minato had to hide a small chuckle behind his hand as he watched them stutter and mumble over a few more sentences before Naruto, a unwavering gleam set in his eye, put the pot of ramen down on the floor almost reverently and turned only to grasp the slightly taller boy into a crushing bear hug.

Sasuke, "oof'd!" lightly as Naruto's arms wrapped snuggly around him and the blush he was sure couldn't get any worse did just that.

"Sasuke!" Naruto cried out happily and the raven decided it was safe to hug back, although seeming a bit awkward at it at first. Naruto didn't seem to mind as he snuggled further into the near protective embrace and released a muffled, "Love you, Sasuke."

Instantly the Uchiha's head whiplashed down to stare fondly into a mass of golden blond hair and his grip tightened slightly.

'_Well, __**this**__ is interesting_,' Minato surmised from his hiding place as he watched Sasuke swallow a lump in his throat and open his mouth warily, the blush threatening to take over his entire face.

"I…" he began and Minato had to lean forward a smidge to even hear the soft words.

"Naruto, I…"

The boy seemed at a loss, gripping tightly to the smaller one and a face as red as the tomatoes he preferred as he stuttered onward. Minato could feel his heart racing beneath his skin, a strange feeling telling him _exactly_ what the littlest Uchiha wished so much to say, and he couldn't help but take a small step further towards the door in his curiosity.

"I… I… I…" Sasuke took a deep, calming breath before practically yelling out, "I love you too!"

"I KNEW IT!"

As soon as the words escaped Minato's lips, he knew he was done for, no matter how hard he covered them, nor how quietly he remained partially hidden behind the doorframe. For the look of sheer terror that instantly overcame Sasuke's face told him that the moment was ruined and the scene now over. Naruto hadn't seemed to notice a thing, too caught up in professing his love for the one who brought him ramen to see that anything was wrong with his unresponsive Uchiha.

That was until Sasuke decided that, in this situation, flight was the best option.

With a startled noise, he shoved the blond boy off of him, eyes wide and in suspense as he fell onto his back, and without another word, Sasuke was out the door and as far away as his tiny feet could carry him.

Neither Minato's incessant giggles nor Naruto's call of, "Oi, bastard!" could reach his ears while he was racing down the street, intent to never, even set foot into that house again.

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**A/N:** It's meh. I think I might do a better one. Maybe. Sort of. Eventually. .


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